Blizzard should enable cross-faction grouping

By Ted Atchley

One of the issues the developers acknowledged during Media Day was the current faction imbalance in high end raid guilds. A quick check of Wowprogress shows over 70% of the top 100 guilds are Horde. From datamining, it appears the developers’ solution is Hall of Fame achievements, which are given to the first 100 guilds of each faction to clear the first Mythic raid in Battle for Azeroth.

While this may induce the 101st Horde guild to faction change to Alliance, there’s a better solution which would benefit all players: cross-faction raid groups.

Racial abilities encourage faction imbalance

The issue started with racials. The Horde has had great racials for PVE like Berserking and Blood Fury. Each faction’s racials are better balanced now, but Arcane Torrent is still helpful in Mythic+ and Rocket Jump made Kil’jaeden easier. And even if Blizzard did equal racials now, it won’t overcome inertia. If raiding guilds went Horde for the racials, there’s little reason for them to go back unless Alliance racials aren’t just balanced, but better. However, giving the Alliance more powerful PVE racials would only reverse the problem. High-end raiders will always min-max their toons, which includes considering racials. We need a solution that considers both factions, regardless of how useful racials are for group content.

With more guilds on the Horde side, players seeking wanting to raid will find more opportunities there. If (or when) their desire to raid overcomes their desire to play an Alliance race, they switch to Horde. This makes it harder for Alliance guilds to recruit, as the number of raid-focused players dwindles. And even if those hardcore players later decide to ramp down to a more casual approach, they need a compelling reason to switch and enlarge the Alliance pool.

But the faction imbalance isn’t only an issue for hardcore raiders. Many players have friends on the opposite of the faction divide, and others have followed their friends to one faction, but would prefer another. Though it’s only anecdotal, my own casual guild is about 50/50. We have players with a strong preference for Alliance. We also have players who, without the social attachment to us, would love to roll Horde.

With cross-faction grouping, no one would have to abandon their favorite faction or race in order to raid.

Communities and cross-faction groups could help

Battle for Azeroth’s Communities feature will provide the developers with a new way to address this issue. Communities are cross-realm groups with their own calendar and group chat. It’s like an in-game Discord.

If Blizzard expanded Communities to be cross-realm and cross-faction, players of any faction could easily find groups to raid. Cross-faction Communities would solve group communication and organization issues before they start.

Put down your pitchforks

I know some are, shall we say, less than enthusiastic about the idea of cross-faction grouping — but I think the benefits far outweigh any perceived drawbacks.

It will help guilds find the right players and players find the right guilds

It will help all guilds recruit by enlarging the pool of available players, as any player could consider any guild. It’s hard enough finding a guild with a compatible schedule, the right culture, and at a level of progression near to your own. Most of the time, it will involve a server change — and sometimes a faction change, too. Removing the potential need to faction change will make it cheaper and thus easier to find the right guild.

But won’t it cut into the money Blizzard makes from faction changes?

Any loss of faction change revenue from people changing guilds would be offset by people buying a faction change, but staying with their current guild teams. Cross-faction grouping will give players greater freedom to change to the race they always wanted to be, despite the faction of their guild. I’m sure several players in my own guild would take advantage of this. With four the new Allied races coming, and more to follow, there are sure to be players attracted to a new race from the other faction.

Wouldn’t it ruin the game’s story?

Cross-faction grouping doesn’t have to affect the story and lore in any way. These groups wouldn’t have any more impact than groups like the Argent Crusade or Cenarion Circle, which already allow members from both the Alliance and Horde — and it would mimic Legion’s class orders, too. It’s always a group of heroes or a group of champions clearing the raid. Even if one faction gets canon credit for clearing raid, like with Chronicle 3, players of the other faction still did those raids. Just because the Horde got credit for Bastion of Twilight doesn’t mean I’m turning in my Glaciated Helm.

This wouldn’t be the end of factions

Cross-faction grouping wouldn’t be the end of factions and doesn’t have to soften the faction divide — after all, you’re playing with these people now. The Horde you don’t want in your Alliance group has a max level Alliance alt who tanked your Timewalking run last week. Many people are already playing with friends from the opposing factions — those relationships are already there.

There’s tribalism around the factions and a certain level of it can even be healthy for the game. But past that certain degree, it becomes a detriment (as the moderators on many WoW fansites have seen with the current animosity between the faction). At the end of the day, we’re all gamers who enjoy the theme park style MMORPG and the challenges of raiding. We are more alike than we are different.

I saw this firsthand myself at BlizzCon. Sure, some people wore their faction pride on their graphic tee. It was fun to yell “for the Horde” or “for the Alliance.” I was the oddball yelling “for Khaz Modan.” Everyone was part of the same tribe, a group of passionate Blizzard fans. Nobody pushed me away from the bar at the Wowhead party because of my Alliance tee.

Faction conflict is good for characters, not players.

The developers have a new vehicle to allow cross-faction grouping. It’s time for them to take it out for test drive and let the players reap the benefits. A healthier community makes for a better game, which means Blizzard should make this change.